UniFi Protect: From Underdog to Industry Leader

[@justintyme6920]

The best part is that no one at Apple wanted to listen to Robert. So he left and started Ubiquiti right out of San Carlos! Now, he's literally a billionaire.

[@ronhoppner]

The Apple influence shows in every single product. He and Ubiquiti deserve all the success and more. Absolutely a favorite line of products of mine.

[@stultuses]

​@ronhoppner Apple is all about lock in, unifi is moving towards working with multiple devices, much much better than Apple Apple doesn't innovate anymore, they just purchase other companies technology and claim it as their own Like they stole the gui idea from Xerox, like they tried to claim they invented the tablet when in fact it appeared years beforehand in movies and TV shows like le femme Nikita Even the iPhone was ripped as an idea from star trek All the best innovation comes from Android now, and has done so for quite a while

[@jodycwilliams]

I run the security for a Gun Manufacturer here in Texas. They absolutely love Unifi Protect and all of the advancements over the last few years. The future is looking very bright for Protect.

[@DPCTechnology]

Great overview. The best thing is that all of this development is happeing at no charge. I just updated a UNVR from 2.0 all the way to 5.x and it blew my mind how much better that same UNVR hardware (bought years ago) is now with the software updates... And it will only be better in the future. They really have come a long way..

[@maxherman11]

Hold up, 5.0?! 👀 EDIT: Thought you were talking about UNVR FW which is currently 4.0, now I see you meant 5.0/5.1 for Protect, my bad!

[@DrivingPhilippines]

That's really good to know. Running Syno Surveillance Station now, and will be switching over to Unifi NVR soon. They have great cameras (as seen on your channel)

[@j340_official]

I have been using unifi protect for my house, a few g5 PTZ cameras. and now I have a little baby and I use a g4 instant as a baby monitor cam and I love watching her in her little crib. Unifi has helped make this moment special for me and my wife who also uses the app as a baby monitor.

[@timmharrington8671]

We installed 56 AVYCON cameras a couple years ago, but also had a Unifi Protect NVR with a few cameras for the indoor areas (Mainly server room and some secure spaces). I have been replacing the avycons with G5 turrets and installed an Enterprise NVR a few months ago, mainly because the Avycons just don't work well with the Unifi, they work but tend to be laggy during playback. Also really like the AI features in the Unifi cameras and think the 2k Unifi cameras are a better image than the 4k Avycons. One of my favorite features is the timeline playback, and how you cn swap cameras and the timeline keeps going. With the avycon DVR I had to pick each cameras and choose where in the timeline I wanted to view, it was near impossible to get them synced up. With Unifi it is a breeze to trace events across multiple cameras, and downloading the footage is so simple. We've just added 10 doors with the Access system as well, which I run through the Enterprise NVR, and are eliminating people having physical door keys, and it's been great.

[@steveroywojciechowsk]

OMG. I have an old TP-Link NC450 which I was going to send to recycle as the TP-Link app and web interface no longer work with modern browsers. What do you know, UniFi Protect found it on my network and adopted it into protect. Awesome!

[@BigHeadClan]

Really? I have a few customers with older camera systems as well with that very issue I may need to give that a shot.

[@thekidthatshoots]

@@BigHeadClanyes. There is a setting in the software that allows 3rd party cameras. It even pulled my nas drive and wanted to add that because it had a security dvr installed.

[@adaster98]

I just deployed a 39 camera system of mostly G5 Turrets at a site and i'm very happy with them, the night vision is really powerful and the detections work great, very versatile.

[@giggadan]

Protect has been the best investment I have ever made. I started my installer journey with unifi when it was just the regular dream machine. All these years later with a ton of hiccups on the way in terms of wants, they have a competitive system that puts so many other systems to shame on just how easy it is to use alone. Looking forward to future with protect and knowing I’ll have more installs because of how great it is!

[@aandecomputers1]

Love it what a great solution. Thank you for your time and sharing knowledge with us little people:) you are truly an asset and someone that people look for your how to videos in all types of subject. Again thank you God bless and happy new years!

[@TotteVG]

Appreciate your insight on Protect. After a decade with Synology Surveillance Station and being dissatisfied with some of their recent changes (ex dropped hvec support) and unavailability of their own cameras (out of stock for over a year), have decided to try Protect. Picked up the AI Turret and UDMPM. Will miss some features like smart time lapse and automatic footage archival, but hope Ubiquiti will add those features in the future.

[@dank9561]

Another user here gradually migrating from Synology Surveillance Station to Unifi Protect. Surveillance Station was a decent product back in 2016 when I bought my first Synology NAS. But it seems Synology just haven't invested any resource in improving the product and it is really showing its age now. Synology's entire suite of mobile apps are rather buggy. Unifi have been on fire with updates over the last couple of years and I hope they continue to add the missing features customers have ben asking for.

[@joekellyou]

I’ve been thinking of making a home lab/just home system out of unifi stuff. I hadn’t even considered there could be a processing max that low on the non enterprise stuff. Good to know!

[@BertramJoseph]

Glad to see it improving. I'm still happy with Synology, but competition is good for everyone

[@Chazzaa-n7g]

Really good video, thank you. I find myself increasingly frustrated and limited by unifi’s network devices/software and have in recent times found myself preferring other vendors (they’re still ok for basic home/soho use, though). But will say… protect has come a very long way in recent year’s, they’ve done a fantastic job in this area and the support for 3rd party cameras is both unexpected and game-changing. They’re serious contenders in this market now. Love to see it.

[@timwood06]

Thanks for the video Tom! I have a Dream Machine Pro and didn't realize I can use my 3rd party cameras. Game changer for sure.

[@garynagle3093]

Wow. Just when I get thought for security here’s your wonderful video. Thank you!

[@sklise1]

cool. Really up'ing your game from a few years ago. Didn't know about the cameras

[@DovahDoVolom]

My father runs the IT at a small hospital and he really wants to use Unifi Protect but it is not in the budget to replace all the cameras. Even with the AI port the amount needed although would probably half the cost is still too much. They have over a hundred cameras a mix of 2k, 4k, and HD. All support ONVIF but unfortunalty the current version of Protect does not support receiving detections from the camera. Only the video feed and audio.

[@KennethHaldbk]

What is the device under the AI port in the rack @8:30? AI Port Pro?

[@Akbar_Friendly_in_Cherno]

Is there a way to set up event trigger recording with 3rd party cameras? My Amcrest cams are only able to ALWAYS record or NO recording. This really isn't "compatibility" for 3rd party cams IMO.

[@sfi_consulting5666]

Buy the AI Port and it will do this.

[@Akbar_Friendly_in_Cherno]

@sfi_consulting5666 so "for $200 each your 3rd party cams are supported by Unifi." Got it.

[@dank9561]

When I first tried Protect a few years ago I hated it and found it was nowhere close to the performance of my Axis cameras on Synology Surveillance Station. Now Protect blows Surveillance Station clean out of the water. I'm gradually swapping out the Axis cameras as they go EOS or fail for Protect cameras.

[@isaacg35]

Can I self host a unifi controller and then point the recordings to my NAS? Trying to avoid buying a UDM and/or NVR.

[@LAWRENCESYSTEMS]

No

[@dimajcc]

Protect Is Great, the only missing feature is the ability to receive notifications from the doorbell to unify talk devices. Also watching protect cameras over a VPN connection to UDM-Pro when remote access is disabled is not possible which is a real bummer.

[@justintemp]

How do you view cameras outside a VPN then? Do you have to open UDP ports?

[@Ultrajamz]

Hows it compare to synology surveillance station?

[@winstonreid1395]

approaching parity it seems tom has lots of videos on unifi protect ai and third party are now covered so its really just testing on your own to figure out whats better for you.

[@matthewhickok4421]

I have been looking into Unifi Protect. I am hesitant due to the following: * No reasonably-priced 6MP or 8MP cameras * No obvious support for H.265+ (I think they use a custom H.264+ = old codec) * With third-party cameras, I do not think you even get Motion-Detect (only record) * Do not have a wide variety of camera types (limited choices) I would like to know... about how much space does a Unify 8MP camera use recording 24/7 for a week?

[@utz716]

I was going to build a Synology NVR for my 5 HIKVISION cameras. but now I am going to try it out on my CloudKey Gen2+ and see what happens.

[@michaelrice500]

Excellent review; thanks!

[@mightydh]

We really need ubiqui protect to auto backup to a network share then i’d buy. What if someone walks off / taken a hammer with my NVR’s hard drive is a concern.

[@gregory7406]

Same

[@accesser]

Very keen to see if this triggers some competition in the market from the likes of Synology , I'd love to see Synology release something similar to the AI port

[@ElliottDay-ok6ti]

I wouldn't even use them again buying a licence for a camera is just crazy

[@accesser]

​@@ElliottDay-ok6ti I’m on the fence with paying for a camera license, Good software development costs money, So IMO its understandable the license money goes towards paying the devs doing the work testing camera models, how proactive they are in fixing is somewhat hit and miss

[@dank9561]

In the 8-ish years I've been running Surveillance Station, Synology haven't improved the product at all, only removed a couple of features like HEVC support. I wonder if they are secretly planning to discontinue it like they discontinued Video Station. Am in the process of migrating to Protect.

[@ecrist]

Good stuff, thanks for the video!

[@illegal101_lml]

Do their NVR’s support out of the box AI features from non UI cameras like Amcrest etc?

[@JonathanRootD]

Not without the $200 aI addon

[@Raymond.Jansen]

No, only onvif support, no ai (without ai port).

[@illegal101_lml]

Well… that’s a massive bummer on their part! Was thinking about switching over to Protect & all my Amcrest cameras have built in AI, won’t consider it now! Thanks for the replies 👌🏼

[@RussellMoran]

I’m using Blue Iris and have for years. I’ve upgraded ALL of my network except my router (pfsense) to unifi. Would the unifi protect be worth moving to?

[@daltonschrader8328]

i wouldnt personally do it. you have the right idea with blue iris you choose the hardware can upgrade it as you want to add more cameras and not be locked into using a single hardware vendor for your nvr needs

[@dank9561]

If your existing system is working fine I would keep it for the time being but keep an eye on what further improvements Ubiquiti make to the 3rd party camera support over the next couple of years. If your existing system is end of life and needs a full replacement anyway then Protect could be one to consider.

[@daltonschrader8328]

@@dank9561 his system being on blue iris will never be EoL it’s software that runs on any hardware. The proper industry practice

[@dank9561]

​@@daltonschrader8328Though there will likely come a point where the cameras themselves need a replacement - want better image quality/4K, no longer receiving security updates, starting to fail with old age etc.

[@veryboringname.]

I used BlueIris for a while and found the UI really klunky, especially when trying to access it offsite. Setting up push notifications was a pain too. I found Protect much, much better in those aspects. You do have to pay more though, so it really depends on how you use your cameras and what features you value.

[@RT-iy9pu]

A main reason I saw for slow adoption, at least in the past, was that the cameras were quite expensive. Cameras for 1/4th the price were just as good.

[@John-td9cp]

not to mention, really shit mounting that is extremely easy to rip the older style cameras off the wall.

[@hifiguy77]

Incredibly over priced in the market place, with one of the worst warranties on their products. The ONLY thing they have going for the platform is their camera/NVR UI.

[@jahnkeanater]

All the other cameras are increasing their cloud storage costs and removing features. The cost of ubiquiti cameras is starting to look not so bad.

[@wojtek-33]

@@jahnkeanater That's why you go with something like Reolink where you keep everything local.

[@KoltL]

Ubiquiti cameras are still considerably more expensive than cheaper (and better) alternatives. If you care for picture quality, you're not going to end up with Ubiquiti (unless spending $$ on the AI port which is not worth it for some)

[@ronhoppner]

Protect gets better and better as every month goes buy. UI is on fires these days!

[@USSJeff]

The only thing I wish it had for third party (onvif) was record on motion. Maybe that is not possible since as you say the processing is done in the camera.

[@dank9561]

Virtually every other ONVIF compatible NVR system on the market can do motion events based on the camera's own built-in detections. Unifi just haven't implemented the support for it... yet.

[@dennycrane2938]

I just upgraded all my home gear to unifi. Man.... it's so nice. The software is so good :chefskiss:

[@TommyPanigale]

Great video! Thanks!

[@LAWRENCESYSTEMS]

Glad you liked it!

[@Destroyer954]

do they support H265 and H.265 Plus?

[@Raymond.Jansen]

I bought an ai port to smarten up my 4k dahua cam. It turns out that the ai port doesn't work for all cams. In this case it connects, get's ready, connects again, and this in an endless loop. Support didn't know, but I see others having the same problem. I used the ai port now to smarten up my g4 pro doorbell, and bought an ai pro as replacement for my dahua cam.

[@Poorehouse]

You might try slightly lowering the resolution of your Dahua camera. I have an AI port on a 4K Dahua and it works fine. The AI port got me excited about replacing my Dahua NVR with Ubiquity once the software update to support 5 protect (non-ai) hits for one AI port. The Dahua NVR software sucks in comparison, even with AI cameras.

[@Raymond.Jansen]

@Poorehouse I think that Ubiquity just needs some more time developing the firmware of the ai port. Doesn't really matter to me, I've replaced my dahua camera's for Unifi cams.

[@mr.d6465]

Well Protect still missing Important features like automatically Backup from footage. When someone stole the HDDs from the UNVR the footage are lost. HA is still missing, you can stake the UNVR and UNVR Pro but That is not 100% mature, sometime it doesn't work correctlly. Disaster Recovery is also missing.

[@wojtek-33]

If you just want cameras to be in the same eco system, then fine I suppose, but some of them have bad video quality compared to pretty much anything else. Now maybe this isn't a priority for everyone, but paying 2-6x for the quality they provide, just to be in a ecosystem, is kind of crazy. The 3rd party support is the best thing they could have done though.

[@dank9561]

I agree prior to the G5 series the image quality - especially night vision - was rather poor. Fortunately the image quality (and especially low light performance at night) has improved a lot on the G5 series.

[@Ultrajamz]

Ndaa compliant?

[@unxformat5745]

Is the data at rest encrypted?

[@michaelmiller4834]

The industry leader is a hell of a stretch. Getting better, but I have a long way to go to be the industry leader.

[@lossless4129]

You think? You use it much because I’ll tell ya, for their target audience…they are crushing the competition

[@michaelmiller1978]

@lossless4129 i use Unifi plus I use all the major VMS and IP camera from major brands like Axis, Hanwha, Avigilon, Verkada and many more for well over a decade. Unifi is good but not the leader.

[@hyperthreaders]

FYI ENVR’s can’t be stacked. Says so right on support and mentions those looking for more should use vantage point.

[@F0XH0UND007]

Anyone know if unifi cameras work with open source software such as frigate or scyrpted?

[@dank9561]

You can get an RTSP stream out of Unifi Protect (although I found the audio on the RTSP streams to be rather unstable) but you can't directly attach the Protect cameras to another system as they don't have ONVIF support on the cameras themselves. You need to have the cameras adopted into Protect.

[@AAstebs]

The only issue I really have with Unifi is the G3/G4 instants I use have super super super bad wifi reception. Like I could duct tape the G3 instant to the actual router antenna and Ill still get poor reception alerts.

[@TheDefusedHero]

I do not have this issue at all.. I have two G3 instants that I use inside where I cannot feasibly run cable. You may want to just investigate interference and channel use. My 2.4Ghz network is down to a 20 width due to us being in a congested area; 5Ghz is 80.

[@veryboringname.]

I have several G3 and G4 instants and don't have a problem with reception. As the other commenter mentioned, you might want to check for interference on your wifi network or some other issue.

[@leogaming83]

not exactly about unifi but is anybody switching to unifi AP from TPlink because of the ban on the routers ?

[@jeffz2474]

So they have AI Port. But what if I have third party AI Camera Amcrest AI 4K color night vision cameras. Do I still need the AI port?

[@Joshv918]

Any comments about the availability.. all of this is a fun to play with and you really have to find pockets when you can order something’s. But more often then not I come back to buy something and it’s sold out. Incredible what they’ve done but twice in one week I was hitting a wall because I just couldn’t get the stuff.. they’re not supply isn’t keeping up with their innovation or demand..

[@linyingyen]

Doesn’t seem to have an officially supported method of remote backup of video recordings.

[@Destroyer954]

10:11 ?

[@dank9561]

​@@Destroyer954 It's a manual process to export the recordings. There is no way to have the backup/export process automated on a schedule.

[@jafizzle95]

Just sitting here drooling over this system wishing that I could convince my place of employment to only offer these to customers from now on. I have no say in the matter and the people that sell and install them have absolutely nothing to do with them post-install. We have 200+ Geovision systems deployed to customers and I am one of a small number of people responsible for maintaining and monitoring them for customers and I don't know if there could be a worse system for the scale of deployments that we have. Just the most bizarrely designed software that requires at least weekly checks to make sure it hasn't just stopped recording for no reason. No smart detection function whatsoever, just raw motion detection. That includes dust, spiderwebs, the grain on the video itself. Finding incidents is nightmarish because either hours of nothing was recorded or nothing at all was recorded. Pardon my rant.

[@hydr0zagadka]

one small step to grab the entire market, x265

[@GXShade]

I wish unifi had better support ipv6

[@stultuses]

Making the sharing of a camera available only in enterprise makes unifi start to move out of the consumer arena Having a camera viewable by a third party so they can check in on say a pet or elderly person shouldn't be an enterprise offering nor should you have to share all your cameras to allow someone to access just one if your cameras, most other cameras manufacturers allow anyone to share a camera via a link without paying more I get the gaming unifi will move me and more into enterprise and leave the average consumer in the dust

[@danstuetz]

I am not sure this is accurate. I have configured user accounts in Unifi Protect that only allow my wife access to the cameras she cares about and an account for my sister when she was watching my kids for an extended time that just let her see the doorbell and the camera we use as a baby monitor and I just had the Cloudkey+ at the time (now I have the base UNVR). You aren't sharing the "camera" per say, you just need to configure the user accounts properly. Has nothing to do with the UNVR derivative you have.

[@LackofFaithify]

Ubiquiti is on a full force advance all along the hardware front. Looking back just 5 years to now is pretty insane from switches to cameras to amplifiers?! That said, you have to be careful who you put these in, as they are not NDAA compliant (at least last I looked last week). My concern goes back to the prior platform: they changed the deal once, what stops them from deciding that 3rd party isn't going to work with the system tomorrow? Also, tariffs will this stuff hard. If that happens and ubiquiti gets smashed, which groups get cuts first, Wifi APs, switches, cameras, or gateways?

[@the1maxb]

Great product hamstrung by poor availability. I'd sell them into more projects if only I had a reliable supply. It's hard to bid a project only to find that the chosen models are no longer in stock, and lead time unknown.

[@KoltL]

I am waiting for someone to make a video regarding Ubiquiti cameras vs Dahua (or similar) cameras so people can see UI cameras are really poor in performance but are pro at costing more money.

[@stultuses]

Unifi is expensive for average performance

[@oldman_eleven]

What camera system should a poor buy

[@matthewhickok4421]

Depends totally on your comfort level. I hear many home users install HomeAssistant on a used desktop computer and run Frigate (free) and get cheap cameras (ReoLink are pretty good) If you are wanting a modern easy-to-use system, getting a Dahua system with Dahua cameras is pretty good. (a.k.a Amcrest)

[@ss-xy2im]

Do i own my data exclusively? Do i have to use the cloud? Am i guaranteed never to need to pay a monthly subscription? If the answer is no to any ....

[@LAWRENCESYSTEMS]

You own your data, You don't have to use the cloud There are no subscriptions

[@dank9561]

The Cloud features are only needed if you want to watch/manage your cameras remotely. You can run it using only a local account if you don't want cloud access.

[@ss-xy2im]

Thanks for clearing that up, for some reason i was under a different impression when it to unifi...

[@dank9561]

​@@ss-xy2im As Tom touched on briefly in the video there was a time when Ubiquiti decided to force cloud registration during setup. Fortunately Ubiquiti listened to the customer feedback and restored the ability to run it with local accounts.

[@lossless4129]

Unifi is the king

[@daltonschrader8328]

will not be an industry leader until protect can be self hosted like the old nvr software. Digital Watchdog, Milestone XProtect, etc all all professional systems that have self hosted and hardware based systems.

[@MrsCyImsofly]

Ahh, micro center 😐😑😮‍💨

[@JamesDubinskyJr]

There is nothing industry leading about ubiquity. If a business is in any type of regulated industry they are prohibited and coming soon with new PCI rules you will not be compliant to take credit cards if these are in use on your network or in ones facilities

[@ElishaNyikuli-ed8gy]

Their revenue growth would seem to disagree with your assertion

[@JamesDubinskyJr]

@ revenue growth doesn’t mean anything security and compliance.

[@LAWRENCESYSTEMS]

What about UniFi cameras does not meet PCI compliance?

[@a.g8517]

G4 DOME cams are terrible design to mount it

[@tomstruble7380]

What industry is that? Every IT professional that I know puts them at the kiddie table in the Mom's basement geek club.

[@REDRIDER101]

Just curious what you might suggest over the Ubiquiti product.

[@rookie28604]

Every industry that doesn't want to pay 10x more for a marginally better product at best?

[@justinliu7788]

first

[@chris_schenkel]

Industry leader? Hahahaha. The land of stupid always disappoints.